• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Newcity Art

Visual Art Culture of Chicago and Beyond

  • Newcity
    • Newcity Network
    • Best of Chicago
  • Art
    • About Newcity Art
    • Advertise
    • Breakout Artists
    • Featured Exhibitions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Brazil
  • Design
  • Film
  • Lit
  • Music
  • Resto
  • Stage
  • Subscribe
    • Magazine
    • Newsletters

Electric, Eclectic Neural Nets A Review of Jason Karolak and Melissa Pokorny at Devening Projects + Editions

April 21, 2017 at 4:00 pm by Kelly Reaves

by Kelly Reaves
April 21, 2017May 1, 2017Filed under:
  • Garfield Park
  • Painting
  • Sculpture

Jason Karolak, “Untitled (P-1657),” 2017. Oil on linen over panel, 16 x 14 inches

RECOMMENDED

On the electric white walls of Devening Projects + Editions’ main space, the matte black paint on Jason Karolak’s magnificently primed panels recedes behind juicy trails of saturated color. The contrast creates an optical glow—a vibration where the black and blackish planes meet the vivid greens, pinks, blues, et al.—like neon lights. Confident lines and dots form compositions resembling lumpy, grid-like structures, aerial maps, Pac-Man mazes and neural circuits.

The star of these pleasurable smallish paintings is their color, and the way Karolak uses it to play with space—subtle tonal shifts on abutting planes to imply shadows and depth. Careful, angular tweaks do the same. The dark, flat layer on a couple of the panels deliberately reveals peeks of a bright wash beneath. They pop forward as the black sinks back. Fat lines of rich color float on top, noodling over and under one another in dizzying paths. The paintings don’t appear physically labored, they are mentally labored instead—simple but thoughtful; meditative, even. Thus, the title of his show, “Slow Talkers.”

Melissa Pokorny, “Rule of Three,” 2017. Inkjet print on aluminum and foam, aluminum, epoxy, ceramic, nylon, vinyl, ironing board fabric

Meanwhile, around the corner in the “off-space,” Melissa Pokorny’s surreal, meandering sculptures and wall works riff on similar shapes. On some of the works, lumpy, grid-like structures (this time three-dimensional) act as scaffolding for an eclectic mix of materials—vinyls, leather, ceramic and reflective fabric, among others.

Pokorny often incorporates high-contrast photographic images printed on aluminum mostly and works them into the structures of the objects. These images are derived from forest scenes, with their colors and textures echoed elsewhere in the work’s bricolage. Despite the overtly manmade materials she sources, the works read as adamantly imperfect and hand-forged. However, the curious pairings and arrangements within each give them an air of being conjured more than constructed. Where Karolak’s work could be describing the neural paths and connections in his head, Pokorny’s evoke the “stuff”—warped memories and wisps of information—dug up from the nooks of her mind. (Kelly Reaves)

Jason Karolak’s “Slow Talkers” and Melissa Pokorny’s “Call If You Need Me” show through May 6 at Devening Projects + Editions, 3039 West Carroll.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Related

Tagged:
  • Devening Projects + Editions
  • Jason Karolak
  • Melissa Pokorny

Post navigation

Previous Post Tough Love with a Glint of Humor
Next Post Breakout Artists 2017

Primary Sidebar

Popular Stories

  • Art 50 2018: Chicago’s Artists' Artists
    Art 50 2018: Chicago’s Artists' Artists
  • Breakout Artists 2018: Chicago's Next Generation of Image Makers
    Breakout Artists 2018: Chicago's Next Generation of Image Makers
  • Art 50 2012: Chicago's Artists' Artists
    Art 50 2012: Chicago's Artists' Artists
  • Review: Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings/Art Institute of Chicago
    Review: Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings/Art Institute of Chicago
  • Art Top 5: February 2019
    Art Top 5: February 2019

Newsletters


Copyright Newcity Communications, Inc. © 2019

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.